I spent Sunday afternoon with two old ladies who had poisoned and buried a dozen men in their cellar. Fortunately, I escaped their company alive.

There. I’m sure that got your attention. That makes now as good a time as any to assure you the ladies were fictional characters in The Portland Players’ production of the comedy classic, “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

My wife, Valerie, our daughter, Madeline, and I attended the matinee in South Portland with a few students from Literacy Volunteers of Greater Sanford, as well as LVGS President Geoff Titherington and longtime literacy volunteers and advocates Linda and Jim Gulnac. We went to the show as part of “Books and Blockbusters,” an LVGS program that I am fortunate enough to work with Linda to help facilitate.

Here’s how the program works. A group of LVGS students gather and watch a movie. Afterward, the group reads the book on which the movie is based. During the weeks it takes to read the book, the group meets and discusses its developments and characters and themes. Once the group is finished with the book, it moves on to see a different movie and read the book. The idea of the program is to use the visual media of film and theater as tools to provide a wind at students’ backs as they strengthen their literacy by reading the related books.

For our first book, we watched the Disney movie “Holes” and then read the book by Louis Sachar that inspired it. For our next book and blockbuster, the group chose a twist: we would watch Frank Capra’s classic film “Arsenic and Old Lace” and then do a read-through of the script during our future meetings. In yet another twist, we saw an ad for the Portland show and decided to catch the play before watching the movie.

“Books and Blockbusters” is funded in large part by the Sanford-Springvale Rotary Club. “B&B,” as we sometimes call it, is open to all LVGS students who are interested.

Call these last three paragraphs a plug for the program — one that I hope captures a few people’s attention and inspires them to join us by either seeing Executive Director Ingrid Baily at the LVGS office at 883 Main Street or calling her at 324-2486. We have a lot of fun participating in the program, and we all enjoy each other’s company.

What I will focus on from here are fond recollections of attending plays over the years.

After I graduated college, I called the editor of The Journal Tribune and asked him if I could review movies for the paper. I had reviewed movies for my high school and college newspapers and enjoyed the free flicks and the opportunity to combine my interests in writing and movies. Many a film buff will tell you that the only thing as fun as going to the movies is writing or talking about them. Since it was the late spring of 1995 that I graduated from college, I’m sure I had visions of reviewing such upcoming films as “Braveheart,” “Apollo 13” and “Die Hard With a Vengeance” when I applied to the local daily newspaper.

Alas, the editor informed me that the Tribune relied on the syndicated reviews of the great Roger Ebert for its movie coverage. Ebert is America’s best film critic, in my opinion, and I had been reading his reviews since I was in the sixth grade, so I quickly understood. Thankfully, though, the editor extended a different offer — if I wanted, I could start reviewing plays at theaters throughout the region. I took the job.

I started reviewing plays that summer and kept at it for the next five or six years. I held on to this freelancing position even after I moved to Massachusetts in 1997, and I made special trips to Maine to catch shows every four or five weeks or so.

If memory serves, a production of “West Side Story” at a small theater on Sebago Lake was the first play I reviewed. From there, I caught shows here in Sanford at the theater at the top of Beaver Hill Road and at venues in Portland, Saco, Berwick, Portsmouth and a few other places. I reviewed a production of “Cabaret” by the aforementioned Portland Players. And, lucky me, I got to go four or five times to the Ogunquit Playhouse; one production, the title of which escapes me, starred Keira Dullea, the guy who unplugged HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

To be honest with you, I am not one for musicals. I can easily suspend my disbelief to enjoy a goofy comedy, a sci-fi flick or an over-the-top action movie, but for some reason I have difficulty accepting that anyone, or whole groups of people, would burst into musical numbers in the middle of a story. A musical needs an edge to hold my attention; perhaps this is why a play as extreme as “Sweeney Todd” is my favorite one. To be sure, though, I set aside such feelings when I reviewed musicals and focused on the quality of the performances, the direction, the sets and other values, and reportedly accordingly.

Did I ever give a play a negative review? Of course. A critic’s job is to be honest. However, I tried to be constructive in my remarks and definitely refrained from cheap shots or one-liners at anyone’s expense. All in all, I used an “enthusiasm meter” that I hoped readers found easily discernible as time passed. If I loved a play, you would know it. If I did not, you could tell by a certain politeness and a lack of enthusiasm in what I had to say.

Sometimes I miss those days of reviewing theater. That freelancing gig for the Journal Tribune was my first foray into journalism. Before I went to see “Arsenic and Old Lace” on Sunday, I had not seen a play in years.

I have fond memories of my days as a critic. One time, I saw Lucie Arnaz — Lucille Ball’s and Desi Arnaz’s talented daughter — portray opera legend Maria Callais on stage in Portsmouth. Someone involved in the production must have told her a local newspaper critic was in the audience, and even went so far as to tell her where. After Arnaz took her bow, she turned to exit the stage; as she walked away, she looked up at me and smiled and winked. There was no mistaking it, as we were but a few feet apart — those who attended the play with me would back me up. I was a young theater critic who took his job, but not himself, seriously. I couldn’t wait to call my parents and let them know what had happened — especially my mother, who grew up watching “I Love Lucy” and still catches reruns of the show to this day.

So perhaps I’ll end here by offering my first printed theater review in more than a decade: The Portland Players’ production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” was a winner.

That quick, admittedly bland, one-sentence blurb will have to suffice, I’m afraid. That Sunday show marked the end of the play’s run at the theater. Based on the strength of the production, though, I recommend catching another play there some time.

But first, check if there’s something good at the Nasson Little Theatre here at home.